Christian Eriksen could be missing link in Tottenham’s rebooted attack

“I am enjoying watching the team,” wrote Antonio Conte in his pre-match notes. It would have been somewhat of a surprise if the Tottenham manager felt the same after 40 minutes of this encounter.

Despite dominating the opening exchanges against a disciplined Newcastle side, Spurs found themselves trailing to Fabian Schär’s opportunistic free-kick and with a mountain to climb to maintain their hopes of finishing in the top four this season. Down on the touchline a furious Conte could barely contain his frustration as he stamped his feet.

Luckily for the Italian, Son Heung-min was in one of his moods. Having needlessly fouled the lively Joe Willock on the edge of the penalty area in the build-up to Newcastle’s goal, for the next 15 minutes either side of half-time he set about making amends in clinical fashion. An inch-perfect cross which was gleefully headed home by Ben Davies for the equaliser took Son level with Aaron Lennon on 45 Premier League assists for Tottenham before Dejan Kulusevski returned the compliment just after the break for the South Korean to score their third goal. This time, Conte could not contain his excitement as he leapt into the arms of his assistant.

When Son dragged an effort wide of the target seconds after Emerson Royal had made it 4-1 to the hosts with more than 25 minutes to play, it was hard to believe that this was the same team that had struggled to create meaningful chances before falling behind so meekly. At that stage it seemed obvious that, despite the promptings of the elegant Uruguay midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, Tottenham were in desperate need of a player who is capable of opening up organised defences. Someone such as Christian Eriksen perhaps?

It is a little more than two years